Erick Munoz with an undated copy of a photograph of himself and his wife, Marlise, and their son, Mateo, in Haltom City, Texas. / Ron T. Ennis, The Fort Worth Star-Telegram/AP

by Michael Winter, USA TODAY

by Michael Winter, USA TODAY

Medical records show the fetus of a brain-dead Texas paramedic being kept alive by a Fort Worth hospital is "distinctly abnormal," attorneys for the woman's husband said Wednesday.

Erick Munoz has been battling to end life support for his 33-year-old wife, Marlise, whom he found unconscious on their kitchen floor Nov. 26 when she was 14-week pregnant. He says she had made it clear to him of her desire to never be kept alive by machines.

In their statement, attorneys Heather King and Jessica Hall Janicek said the fetus is now at about 22 weeks' gestation.

"Even at this early stage, the lower extremities are deformed to the extent that the gender cannot be determined," they said, adding that the fetus also has fluid building up inside the skull and possibly has a heart problem.

"Quite sadly, this information is not surprising due to the fact that the fetus, after being deprived of oxygen for an indeterminate length of time, is gestating within a dead and deteriorating body, as a horrified family looks on in absolute anguish, distress and sadness," the attorneys said.

John Peter Smith Hospital has said Texas law prohibits it from ending "life-sustaining treatment" of a pregnant patient. Some medical and legal experts have said the hospital is misconstruing and misapplying the law.

A court hearing is scheduled for Friday. Munoz, also a paramedic, has sued to force the hospital to disconnect life support and return his wife's body to her family. He argues that the state statue regarding pregnant patients "does not apply to the dead."

"Were that to be true, then it would be incumbent upon all health care providers to immediately conduct pregnancy tests on any woman of childbearing age who becomes deceased, and upon determining the deceased body was pregnant, hooking the body up to machines in an attempt to continue gestation," the attorneys' statement reads. "Surely, such a result was never intended nor should it be inferred."